V. I.

Lenin

Today’s Izvestia carries a report of the meeting of the Soldiers’ Section of the Soviet of Workers’ and
Soldiers’ Deputies. This meeting, among other things, “ considered the question of whether soldiers could perform the duties of militiamen. The Executive Committee proposed
to the meeting a resolution to the following effect:

“ In view of the fact that soldiers must perform their direct duty, the Executive Committee of the Soviet of
Soldiers’ Deputies declared against the soldiers’ participation in the militia, and proposes that all
soldiers serving in the militia be immediately returned to their units.’ “ After a brief debate, the resolution was passed with an
amendment permitting soldiers discharged from active service as well as wounded soldiers to
perform militia duties.”

It is to be regretted that the exact texts of the resolution and
the amendment have not been published. More regrettable still is
the fact that the Executive Committee proposed and the meeting
adopted a resolution which is a complete abandonment of the
fundamental principles of democracy.

There is hardly a democratic party in Russia that does not
include in its programme a demand for the universal arming of
the people as a substitute for the standing army. There is
hardly a Socialist-Revolutionary or a Menshevik Social-Democrat
who would dare oppose such a demand. The trouble is that it has
become a “custom” “nowadays”, under the cover of high-sounding
phrases about ’revolutionary democracy”, to accept democratic
(the more so socialist) programmes “in principle”, but reject
them in practice.

To oppose the participation of soldiers in the militia on the
ground that “soldiers must perform their direct duty” is to
forget completely the principles of democracy and involuntarily,
unconsciously, perhaps, to adopt the idea of a standing
army. The soldier is a professional; his direct duty is
not social service at all—such is the point of view of those who are for a standing army. It is not a
democratic point of view. It is the point of view of the
Napoleons. It is the point of view of old supporters of the old
regime and the capitalists, who dream of an easy transition
backward, from a republic to a constitutional monarchy.

A democrat is opposed to such a view on principle. Soldiers’
participation in the militia amounts to breaking down the wall
that separates the army from the people. It amounts to breaking
with the accursed “barrack” past where a special group of
citizens, detached from and opposed to the people, were trained,
“knocked into shape” and drilled for the “direct task” of
following only a military profession. Soldiers’ participation in
the militia is a cardinal issue involving the re-education of
the “soldiers” into militiamen citizens, the re-education of the
population into public-spirited armed citizens. Democracy will
remain an idle deceitful phrase, or merely a half-measure,
unless the entire people is given a chance immediately and unqualifiedly to learn how to handle arms. Without the
systematic, regular, and wide spread participation of the
soldiers in the militia this will be impossible.

The objection may be raised that soldiers should not be
deflected from their direct duties. No one said they should. To make a point of this is as ridiculous as
saying that a physician engaged at the bedside of a patient who
is dangerously ill has no right to leave that bedside in order
to go and hand in his voting-paper, or that a worker engaged in
production, which admittedly must not be interrupted, has no
right to go away to exercise his political rights until he is
relieved by another worker. Such arguments would simply he
frivolous and even unscrupulous.

Participation in the militia is one of the cardinal and basic
principles of democracy, one of the most important guarantees of
freedom. (We might add, parenthetically, that there is no better
way of enhancing the purely military strength and capacity of
the army than by substituting the universal arming of the people
for the standing army, and by using the soldiers to instruct the
people; this method has always been used and always will be used
in every truly revolutionary war.) The immediate, unqualified,
universal organisation of a people’s militia and the widest
participation of soldiers in that militia are in the vital
interests of the workers, peas ants, and soldiers, that is to
say, the vast majority of the population, a majority that is not
interested in safeguarding the profits of the landowners and the
capitalists.

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